The optional bosses to get the last jobs are really kicking my ass. (At least the Warbringer sure is, and I had to cheese the Starseer boss to beat it.) I’m gonna go see if the Runelord and Sorcerer are any easier.

I looked that up when deciding whether or not to even bother with Olberic and found a guide that suggested completing all stories is and doing the quests you mention are the preconditions.

I've finished Ophilia's story and everyone else through C3. Now I'm going around cleaning up sidequests to hopefully get some gear to make the four non-party characters bosses less miserable.

Saving Olberic's C2 and C3 until after finishing all other C3s was also definitely the right call. I just dumped Warrior Tressa's hand-me-downs on him and added some defensive accessories. One of the duels was a bit rough, but the rest of my party easily handled everything else without needing to do any grinding.

I actually had the most trouble with the Runelord boss. Warmaster was second hardest. Sorcerer was easiest. But I also did Warmaster last, so it probably would have been the hardest without the Runelord class.

(Just beat the Runelord boss. Once he started targeting the full party, things got reeeeal ugly. At one point my entire party was KOed except for Ophilia, who was asleep. But I clawed back and did end up winning on my first try. Super happy right now. I love this game.)

I got the Sorcerer job and finished Ophilia/Primrose/Cyrus/Therion's stories. Ophilia gave me a bit of trouble early on with the Shadow Soulstone-spamming mobs, but otherwise it was pretty easy going except for having to steal as Therion. I failed stealing a 3% item 25 times in a row before giving up and resetting, then grinded 5 levels and failed an additional dozen times in a row before the game finally gave it to me.

Not because of the boss itself, mind you, but because of the forced multi-party system the game uses. Secondary Party? More like "party that actually fights the second phase of the final boss and gets wiped turn 1." So, so dumb. This is way worse than FF6/8's forced implementation of multiple parties.

I don't like being whiny and negative about games but this is just annoying.

Yeah, you need everyone at ~60 just for the final boss because you split into two parties. If you're not keen on endgame grinding I'd say cut when you've had enough.

I'm not really opposed to grinding in a JRPG, but this instance is pretty annoying because I haven't had to grind before and the reason for the grind feels contrived. Grinding doesn't seem that hard but it's the principle of the matter, man.

Do I just rotate my party more than you guys? All of my characters are close to level 50 and my main is 63, and I haven’t even started my second Chapter 4 yet. Imagining all 8 of my characters being ~60 by the end of C4’s is not a problem.

Just got Sorcerer. Gonna take a second crack at Warmaster. So far the Girl Power Party is really doing wonders for me--Warrior H'aanit, Starseer Ophilia, Sorcerer Primrose, and Runelord Tressa...it's a force to be reckoned with. Sealticge's Seduction boosting Ophilia so she can give the entire party BP Boost and Starsong is...pretty dirty.

I didn't rotate at all and didn't go out of my way to fight battles, so my main three are 58/57/57 with Primrose at 49 going into my next-to-last C4. I think the next highest is Therion at around 33, but that's only because I tried to grind to improve my steal odds - none of the other four would've cracked level 30 even after finishing their stories otherwise.

^^^The good news for you is that when you get it, Warmaster H'aanit eats Warriors H'aanits lunch at the playground. Its such an upgrade.

I just took like an hour and ran my under leveled characters through the Forest of Purgation with Cyrus the Sorcerer Supreme, one shotting things until they got up to speed.

Final Boss thoughts:

Spoiler.

I did manage to split up my forces and take down the final boss, but I had a really underwhelming 1st party. Phase 1 took my like, 2 hours. Saving grace is your friend. If you can get it on everyone, it will save you a lot of trouble. After that, the only thing that disappointed me is that there is no real payoff to beating it. There's maybe a 1 minute cutscene and an accessory that removes random encounters. Thats it. I guess thats what the typical Square superboss usually gives you, but considering this is infinitely more story oriented than pretty much every Final Fantasy superboss, I was a little disapointed. Trying to figure out what having no random encounters does for me when I beat the game...

Most of the story dump itself was done during the dungeon, and that part was actually amazing. Even if you have no intention of beating the final boss itself, go through the gauntlet with your A team and read the text. Everything gets tied together perfectly. It literally gave me chills when I found out what Redeye was.

Just finished Cyrus’s story. I wasn’t sure where to go after getting the final Job, but I knew I wanted to save H’aanit for last. I had already done Ophilia. Then it dawned on me...I’ll do them in name-order. OCTOPATH. On to Tressa next.

I don't necessarily disagree about it not being a technically great story, but I personally got a kick out of imagining it was all some weird Resident Evil spinoff. Blood crystals are basically just a less gross T-virus.

Also, that bit with the house in C3 was really dumb. Partly because of how obvious the twist was, and partly because of how ridiculous whats-er-face showing up immediately after was.

Tressa:

Spoiler.

"You stole my notebook, and now you're going to return it and let me walk away. And before I leave, let me give you a word of advice: Don't underestimate this merchant."

This is possibly the only reasonable response to being threatened by some random idiot a JRPG lead has ever had, and I got way too much satisfaction from it.

The majority of my originally-planned main squad was here. Unsurprisingly, my strat for phase 2 was mostly leaning on Saving Grace. Olberic was mostly on Leg Trap duty, especially since Galdera goes "mom said it's my turn to play 3 times" in Phase 2.5. It's basically a long endurance fight until you crack open weaknesses, which lets you utterly nuke something with Elemental Break+Balogar's Blade. (in that sense, it kind of reminds me of SMT IVA's final boss...) This is a fun fight but the sheer amount of wasted time before-hand is more annoying than anything, as is the dual-party thing.

Endgame was eh overall and the game kind of just ends. The real reward is the journey and all the friends we made along the way!

As for the individual stories themselves:

Spoiler.

There was nothing amazing but they're alright.

Alfyn: Probably my favorite. Rather than deal with big-ass stuff it's about one man's idealism being constantly challenged. Only black mark is the part in Chapter 4 where he figures out the elixir ingredients like this.
Olberic: Probably my second-favorite. What can I say, I just like "what am I fighting for" stories. I think it really comes into its own at the end of Chapter 2 when the question of whether Erdhardt is as lost as Olberic is gets raised.
H'aanit: I liked it. I feel like it starts simple and becomes more interesting due to the idea of "gaining a story to tell." Endgame adds another significant dimension to the story which I appreciated.
Therion/Tressa: s'okay.
Primrose: Starts off great but Simeon is kind of a massive dork and that detracts from the last two chapters.
Cyrus: Starts off interesting but climaxes too fast.
Ophillia: I said this one was the weakest and I stand by that. It starts generic and ends uber generic and I was annoyed by the characters involved.